Monday, July 9, 2012

I have just watched "The Amazing Spider-Man" and even though I think that the "amazing" of that title is a bit too presumptuous I liked the movie: it's a really good cast, far better than the first Spider-Man movie directed by Sam Raimi. But Raimi had Willem Dafoe as the villain, and Willem Dafoe as the villain is just perfection; actually, Dafoe as anything is perfection. :)
In a perfect world, Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man would be directed by Sam Raimi.

Well, the world is not perfect but this cake is: the batter is delicious and the sour cream makes the cake extremely tender; I used blackcurrant preserves here because I'd bought a jar of it on a whim but any flavor will do: use your favorite.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Butter and flour a 25cm (10in) Bundt pan.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Add the granulated sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping the sides of the bowl. Add the sour cream and vanilla. On low speed, beat in the dry ingredients just until incorporated – batter will be thick.
Spread all but ½ cup of the batter into the prepared pan. Using the back of a spoon, make a trough in the batter, all the way around the pan. Mix the preserves with the reserved batter and spoon it into the trough.
Bake the cake for about 1 hour, or until it begins to pull away from the pan and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Invert the cake onto a wire rack, remove the pan and let cool completely.
Sift with the confectioners' sugar and serve.

* homemade sour cream: to make 1 cup of sour cream, mix 1 cup (240ml) heavy cream with 2-3 teaspoons lemon juice in a bowl. Whisk until it starts to thicken. Cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 1 hour or until thicker (I usually leave mine on the counter overnight – except on very warm nights – and it turns out thick and silky in the following morning; refrigerate for a creamier texture)